Bowties and Bad Ideas
by gleeandotherthings
Summary: Things start to go wrong when Hiram Berry and LeRoy Berry go to watch their daughter, Rachel, perform with the New Directions at Regionals of her senior year. At first, it's harmless, but soon, things take a turn for the worse for everyone involved.
1. Introduction

Hiram Berry watched as Rachel sat by the piano, sipping her glass of water and taking several deep breaths, attempting to calm herself. The next day was going to be the Regionals competition of her senior year. Hiram's daughter was usually pretty confident when it came to her performance with her New Directions. This was going to be her third year making it to regionals, so why was she so worried? He had a feeling he and LeRoy should probably talk to their daughter. She clearly needed a nice pep talk from her dads.

When Rachel went upstairs to start her elaborate but completely rational evening routine before bed, Hiram went over to the kitchen where LeRoy was washing some dishes from that night's meal. "We need to go talk to Rachel."

"Why's that? She seemed fine at dinner."

"That may be true, but I just saw her by the piano. She looks really worried about Regionals."

"Well, that doesn't seem like her at all. "

"Which is precisely why we need to go help out our daughter, dear," Hiram urged and started walking toward the staircase.

"Hold on. Let's wait a little bit. I don't want our baby to think her father was spying on her. It's almost time for her evening tea anyway."

The two men waited a few minutes while the kettle heated the water for their daughter's tea. And right as everything was ready concerning the tea, Rachel said LeRoy a text saying: "Hi Daddy. Ready for my tea now. xoxo"

Rachel's dads stepped into her room with slightly fake smiles on their faces, trying not to show their concern for fear of making her teenage emotions more volatile than usual. She would never be cross with her dads, but they did not like seeing her upset under any circumstances.

Hiram decided to break the ice. "Rachel, how are you feeling about Regionals being tomorrow? We know our little girl is going to steal the show. You're going to be _wunderbar_."

"Thanks, dads, but that's not it. I know it's not like me, but I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm fine though, thank you." She smiled a half-hearted smile that meant she wanted to be left alone for now. Both Hiram and LeRoy reluctantly left their daughter in her room, hoping that they could find a way to help her out with whatever she was going through right now. Hiram had no clue what could possibly be bugging his daughter so much that she couldn't tell either of her fathers about it.

"LeRoy, I've got it. We surprise her tomorrow at the competition. We go without her knowing that we are there."

"Well, I have always wanted to see her perform with her classmates. Now that I think of it, other than Finn and Kurt, I've never really met of the members of our baby's glee club."

"Alright then, it's settled. You cancel your usual Saturday client. We need to finally be there for our daughter during a performance."

"Hiram, I can't do that! I've been working on this case for so long. The firm already let me have weekdays off to take care of our baby for 17 years now. They won't let me cancel for this."

"They'll have to. Our baby won't tell us what's troubling her. That's never happened before. Something is wrong and we will get to the bottom of it.

The next evening, Hiram and LeRoy got dressed up and got into their car to go to their daughter's competition.

Hiram decided to sport a white dress shirt, cream-colored tie and a black dinner jacket with matching pants. LeRoy wanted to wear something with a little more color, though: an aquamarine shirt, a rather flamboyant tie, and black dinner jacket and pants to match his husband.

Rachel had stayed after school in order to rehearse with everyone else, so both men didn't have to sneak around too much. When they got there, Hiram parked their car quite far from the entrance so that Rachel wouldn't be able to see it if she looked out a window. He wanted this to be a big surprise for her.

"Slow down, honey, people are staring. You look like you've committed some sort of crime. Don't be so nervous," LeRoy noted.

"I don't think my quick stride is what's drawing these people's attention. They've probably never seen a queer married couple without some sort of rainbow flag or pink tie."

"Calm down, Hiram. Let's just go inside, sit down and enjoy our golden star's performance."

And that they did. LeRoy couldn't help but check his smartphone constantly, getting bombarded by text messages and emails from his Saturday client that he had put off to see his daughter. "LeRoy, put that away. We are here for our daughter."

"Sorry, hun," the busy lawyer whispered while shooting a heart-meltingly gorgeous smile at Hiram.

After a few performances by several glee clubs from the region, like the Golden Goblets and the Warblers, their baby was finally about to perform. She wasn't featured very heavily in the first number, which was an amateur mistake. The next number started with Rachel doing a very nice version of a song Hiram had heard on the radio a while back. She wasn't the main voice throughout the rest of the song, though. That performance was a little sloppy for Hiram's liking, but it was quite good nonetheless.

Hiram wrote music, arranged vocals, and composed scores as a profession, so when anything about the arrangements was even a little off, he knew. There were plenty of imperfections in those last two numbers, so his face had contorted into a very unhappy expression by the time the third number came around. What was this Shuester man thinking?

For their final number the New Directions seemed to have finally made a good decision. Rachel was on the stage by herself, without any distractions, just her, her voice, and the stage. LeRoy's idea to have a daughter 17 years ago was the best idea he had ever had, Hiram thought. She was hitting all the right notes and everything was perfect. She suddenly looked over to where her dads were sitting, which they took as a cue to stand up and applaud their baby on her performance. Rachel seemed ecstatic that her parents showed up to watch her, which is all that Hiram wanted: to see his daughter happy.

LeRoy was also very much into Rachel's solo, but every now and then, Hiram would catch him reading an "important" email on his phone and elbow his better half in the ribs, urging him to pay attention.

Finally it was time to announce the winner, which was obviously going to be the New Directions, because Rachel had done such a wonderful job up there. But Hiram understood the need for theatrical tension. He looked for Rachel throughout the crowd of several eager teenagers up there. She was behind a boy he had remembered being introduced as Blaine.

This boy suddenly stole Hiram's attention away from his precious daughter. He swore he saw the boy wink at him. Just to make sure, he looked around to find the kid's parents or something, but no one else around him seemed to be the recipient of that mischievous wink. Hiram didn't hesitate to tell his husband of what he thought he had just seen.

"Oh, hell, Hiram, why must you always insist that everyone is in love with you? Not that I would be surprised. You're quite the catch." LeRoy let out a chuckle that involved his whole body. That laugh was just one of the many reasons Hiram was so head-over-heels in love with his life partner.

"I'm not imagining this, honey. It appears I have a new fan, and not a bad looking one at that. But…"

But LeRoy wasn't really paying attention anymore, pulling out his phone and replying to a text message.

**Author's Note: Remember, this is only an introduction. The real stuff goes down in upcoming chapters. I hope you like it so far. Please leave me a review, whether you liked it or not. Your input is really helpful. Thank you and see you again soon. :)**


	2. The Invitation

"I don't like this. I don't like this one bit, LeRoy. Maybe these new glasses you bought me emphasize my features just a little too well," Hiram said in a slightly theatrical worry in his voice. He was now starting to pace back and forth in the McKinley hallway. The New Directions had won Regionals a few minutes ago and the bespectacled man with a grimace across his face wanted to congratulate his daughter on her breathtaking performance. But he wanted to calm down first so that he didn't worry Rachel.

"Will you please relax?" LeRoy went over to his husband and looked him in those beautiful chocolaty eyes he'd fallen in love with 30 years ago at a performance of West Side Story in Columbus. "First of all, honey, that boy might not have even winked at you. You might just be imagining it. Second, if he did wink at you, who cares? He's a minor and you're…" Hiram shot him a look, telling him to be careful with which words he decided to use next. "And you're an adult. Nothing's going to come of this small exchange, if you can even call it that. It's not as if he's attempted any romantic advances on my husband yet. It was just a wink."

"You're right. I'm just over-reacting. I think I just need a Xanex." Hiram had already taken two that day, so LeRoy took it upon himself to hide them.

The two Berry men went to find the room their daughter and her New Directions were celebrating their victory in so that they could be properly congratulated.

LeRoy opened the door to the celebration of several teenagers and one William Shuester. Hiram was still not in favor of the man's song choices, but Rachel did the best she could with what she was given.

As soon as Rachel's dads entered the space that they assumed was used for glee club rehearsal, all eyes were on them. Rachel's face brightened as she saw two of the best men in the entire world in front of her. "Dads! You guys came to see me perform! I thought you were both busy with your jobs, as usual," she almost shouted. That girl certainly could get a crowd's attention. Then, she turned to the rest of her group of classmates. "Everybody, meet my dads." She made a grand gesture, as if showing off her parents.

Hiram recognized most of these kids. A few of them had visited the Berry home. Some while he was there, like Finn, Noah, Mercedes, and of course Kurt. Most of the other New Directions had visited while he and his husband were out of town and had emptied the liquor cabinet.

"Thank you guys so much for coming. Did you enjoy the performances?" William Shuester asked with an over-excited grin on his face.

"It was wonderful, Will. The kids did a great job." LeRoy answered because Hiram was a bit distracted by two things. Firstly, how did this teacher get his hair to do… that? Second, Blaine was looking straight at him from across the room. It was a little unnerving.

"If you two gentlemen would excuse me?" Hiram left the two men to continue their conversation so that he could make his way over to Blaine, who was celebrating the show choir victory with Kurt, Mercedes, and Rachel.

"Rachel! We came all this way just for you and neither of us even gets a hug?"

"You're right, Dad. How rude of me." Rachel smiled and vigorously hugged him and then ran off to find her other father.

"Hey, Mr. Berry," Mercedes said with a huge grin. She seemed really enthused about the win, but something wasn't quite right about her demeanor either. "Did you enjoy the performances?"

"It was grand Mercedes, thank you. You were all terrific, kids." Hiram looked over to Kurt. "Kurt! I haven't seen you around our house in a while. That is simply unacceptable. You must come over one of these nights."

"I would, Mr. Berry, but…"

"Ah, I see. Is there tension between you and my daughter again?" Hiram didn't want to upset Rachel by inviting over Kurt if there was some little tiff getting in the way.

"No. Not at all. We're great friends. I mean she can be pretty difficult sometimes, but no, we're good right now. It's just… Blaine finally recovered from that slushy incident and I haven't seen him in so long."

"We've got dates lined up for the entire week," Blaine said with his infectiously enthusiastic smile. "But who says we can't visit the Berry house on a date, right Kurt?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to get in the way. You boys have fun on your dates." Hiram knew what Blaine was doing, especially since he just received another wink from the charming boy as Kurt was looking off into the distance. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if Hiram hadn't known so many times this kind of thing happened to people in the past. Another reason this type of thing rubbed him the wrong way was that, as little as Hiram wanted to admit it to himself, Blaine was extremely attractive.

"Oh, don't be silly, Mr. Berry. I'd be totally up for coming over with Blaine. It'd be so much fun."

"No way!" Blaine burst out in excitement. "I haven't been over to Rachel's since… um…" Blaine felt a little awkward bringing that up again.

"…Since you all stole our alcohol and engaged in some rather raucous partying?" As fun-loving and accepting of Rachel's friends as he was, Hiram still did not approve of what happened when the group got together and drank all his and LeRoy's alcohol. "But alright, I guess you boys are coming over for dinner on Tuesday night, if that's alright with your folks." He felt obligated to invite the both of them over now. He didn't want to be acting strange around Kurt because he didn't want to tip off that perceptive boy on the fact that anything was different.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Mr. Berry," Blaine said with a smile that made him look like a young sexual predator of sorts.

Hiram was definitely looking forward to seeing Kurt again, but Blaine could definitely make this awkward…

LeRoy came over to his husband after having finished his conversation with their daughter's show choir director. "And what are we talking about over here, Hiram?"

"Well, it appears we will be having some guests on Tuesday night for dinner, honey," Hiram said with a laugh. LeRoy nodded approvingly and pecked Hiram quickly on lips. Blaine was once again the center of Hiram's attention, though, after licking his lips at the older man during the quick kiss.

"Lets be on our way, then. I've got to catch up with this case. See you on Tuesday, boys," said LeRoy as his husband out the door. "Rachel, come on, darling. I've got to get back to work soon."

"Coming, Daddy." Rachel smiled at her dads and followed them to the car, but she still looked like she had something on her mind.

Hiram had completely forgotten to ask his daughter what was wrong. That Blaine kid was really getting to him. After the Berry family entered their car, he finally turned around and looked his dearest daughter into her eyes. "Rachel, honey, what's going on? I don't want to be nosey, but I hate seeing you unhappy, as well. You need to know you're always welcome to come to us when you need something."

"I'm fine, dads. It's just… Finn and I are…" Hiram was hoping Rachel would say that they had broken up. Finn was a great kid, but his little star could do much better than that boy. "Well… we're getting married."

"Yes, we know that already and we completely support you," LeRoy acknowledged as he started up the car.

"No, I mean, we're getting married… on Wednesday."

"WHAT!" Both Berry men were floored.

**Author's Note: I hope you like you liked this installment of the story. I think you can see where this story is heading in the future. Please review and tell me what you think, even if you hated it. Also, feel free to suggest something.**


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